South Bay's Tinker's Damn closes while Oakland bars open

by Heather Cassell

It was a bittersweet farewell to Tinker's Damn, the South
Bay's oldest gay bar, throughout the weekend of March 28 to 30.

Upward of an estimated 400 guests came out to have one last
drink and say goodbye to Tinker's Damn and one of its owners, Bill Funk.

Tinker's Damn is perhaps the oldest gay bar in Santa Clara.
Around for more than 50 years, it became an institution as a neighborhood gay
bar that hosted drag shows by the Tinker's Damn Divas on Sundays and Mondays
and for other events.

Tinker's Damn wasn't the only LGBT bar to close in the South
Bay at the beginning of the year. The Metropolitan, formerly Brix Nightclub,
located in downtown San Jose, also closed its doors.

The last weekend of March was a bittersweet moment for Funk,
who started working at Tinker's Damn while he was in college during the mid-1970s.
He became one of the principles of Four Guys, Inc., which bought the bar in
1984, he said, after spending a day packing up a lifetime of memories collected
at the bar.

In 1994, Funk, who is now the president of the corporation,
bought two of the partners out, leaving him and an unknown silent partner as
owners of Santa Clara's oldest gay bar, said Funk. He declined to provide his
business partner's name.

"I'm disappointed," said Funk, a gay man who is "somewhere
between 20 and death," about closing the bar. "I'm saddened, very
saddened by it all."

Funk said that having to close Tinker's Damn came as a
surprise to him as the landlords Cefalu Partners LLC planned to redevelop the
property. In October 2013, Funk received the eviction notice that he needed to
be out of the building by January 1, 2014, but that eviction was extended to
March 31, said Funk, who at one time held hopes the building would become a
historical landmark.

The building at 46 North Saratoga Avenue in Santa Clara was
once a meeting hall for the farmers in the area. As the farmer population
dwindled sometime in the 1950s, the building was turned into the Trophy Room
Bar by a prize fighter, according to Funk, who couldn't recall the fighter's
name when talking about the history of the bar.

It wasn't a gay bar until ten years later. In 1964, the bar
was taken over by the Parkers, who renamed it Tinker's Damn, after Mrs. Parkers'
popular phrase, "I don't give a Tinker's Damn," and it became popular
among the gay community.

Tinker's Damn owner Bill Funk (right) and a friend at the bar's closing party March 31. courtesy Tinker's Damn

A decade later the couple sold the bar to Izel Starkey, who
simply went by "Starkey," and the bar officially became gay. Starkey
fought to make his venue the first gay bar in Santa Clara to allow two men to
openly dance together, and he won that battle by the late 1970s.

In 1984, Funk and three other business partners took over
the bar and the rest is history, from first drag performance to friendships and
relationships made at the bar.

Funk was touched by guests' reminiscing about their
experiences throughout the weekend, from guests talking about Tinker's Damn
being the first gay bar they walked into, to coming out and meeting partners at
the bar, among other memories made at the bar during the farewell weekend.

He added that many expressed their own sadness about the
closing of the bar that was always open 365 days a year for more than five
decades.

"It just broke my heart," said Lorie Ortiz, a
54-year old lesbian, who used to go to Tinker's Damn to watch her late beloved
gay uncle Hal Lincoln Laird's drag performances. "An iconic place like
that. There aren't a lot of wonderful places left."

Ortiz didn't get to bid farewell to Tinker's Damn due to
being at work throughout the weekend, she said. She hopes the bar will reopen
somewhere else.

Funk hopes to reopen as well, he said. He's searching for a
new location, but he hasn't had luck with that.

Angel Michaels at the final Divas of Tinker's Damn show at Tinker's Damn in Santa Clara. courtesy Tinker's Damn

"I don't think that it's going to hit the community
until it's really gone," said Funk. "We've only been closed for a
couple of days."

The Metropolitan goes dark

It only took about two months for the demise of the newly
renovated Metropolitan to shutter its doors. According to the notice posted
outside the venue, the bar is going to be under new management, but there was
no mention of who that will be. Cynthia and Rod Schisler are still owners of
the liquor license until November 2014 when it expires, according to the
California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

Visitors to the bar's website are greeted with a blunt message,
"The End."

BARtab attempted to
contact Rod for a comment, but the phone numbers on file were disconnected.

The only gay bars left in the South Bay are Splash, Renegades
and Mac's in San Jose.

Social mixers at non-gay-owned locations are popping up
around San Jose in response to the lack of lesbian or LGBT nightlife options
thanks to Liquid Therapy. The social night out on the town meets on the first
Friday of the month.

Oakland's Queer Renaissance

Oakland's queer bar scene is a completely different story
from the South Bay. The city across the bay from the "gay mecca" has
been experiencing a revival within the past two years, but now it is getting a
burst of queer nightlife too.

Some of San Francisco's nightlife experts have decamped to
the "Other City by the Bay," finding a jewel in Oakland in need of
quality LGBT nightlife entertainment.

"It certainly is limited in terms of its offerings,"
said Sean Sullivan, who conducted focus groups and found out that lesbians and
other queer people are being left out of Oakland's gay nightlife scene.

To remedy the situation, Sullivan, 37, is opening Port Bar, which
he called "a hetero-friendly place to unload." Sullivan will run the
venue with his partner Richard Fuentes, 31, near the Uptown area, where several
gay bars are located, sometime this summer.

Oakland's Parlaiment hosts monthly gay events.

Christine De La Rosa, owner of Eden Pride Events and
co-owner of fiveTEN Oakland Events, who is working with Sullivan, disagreed
about Oakland's nightlife options.

"The state of Oakland's queer nightlife is fantastic,"
said De La Rosa, pointing out that Oakland's diversity creates an atmosphere where
everyone parties together. "The reason isn't because Oakland is overrun by
queer bars, but rather because queers can go to almost any bar and enjoy
themselves in relative comfort. It is pretty awesome."

As for the girls, De La Rosa points out that lesbian and bi
women are welcome nearly everywhere, but that "queer and lesbian women in
Oakland are always creating space for ourselves and others."

"I don't expect that to stop, and I would tell you to
keep your eye on Oakland," added De La Rosa. "We are doing big things
over here."

Sullivan isn't the only nightlife promoter planting roots in
Oakland's queer nightlife. Parliament, a gay-owned bar and event venue that
opened on New Year's Eve, is hosting monthly gay parties.

Called The Social Life, the tea dance party runs 3PM to 8PM
each first Sunday. It's produced by Chaney Turner, a 34-year-old lesbian who is
the event producer of Social Life and co-owner of fiveTEN Oakland Events, with
DJ Lady Ryan.

Turner described the party, which costs $5 to get in, as a
somewhat dressy affair with great music.

"It's an amazing, amazing city," said Jason M.
Bradford, a 33-year old gay man, who co-owns Parliament Bar and Event Venue
with his straight cousins Christopher "Chris" Nowell, 33, and Davina
Dickens, 33, under the CDJ Group. They plan to bring in quality entertainment
as well as open the venue up to community events, he said.

It's the bar owners' goal to create a space where everyone
feels "they can be involved and a part of the community," said
Bradford, who mentioned that Parliament was recently nominated for the 8th
Annual Oakland Indie Awards.

Bars may come and go, but LGBT East Bay and South Bay
residents and visitors continue to reinvent and make space for nightlife.